In celebration of Earth Day 2017, new research shows that green buildings contribute to a more productive workforce

TORONTO, April 20, 2017 - New ground-breaking research reveals that green buildings do more than reduce energy and increase real-estate value, they also have positive impacts on the employees working in them. The findings are the result of collaboration between the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

RBC and the NRC were able to determine the human resources benefits of building green by analyzing anonymous data on more than 40,000 RBC employees against information on more than 70 RBC office buildings. The results show that overall, green buildings have statistically higher employee job satisfaction, higher employee engagement and organizational commitment, and higher management-assessed performance.

“Organizations inhabiting or owning buildings that are looking to meet green certification standards, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), usually use the environmental impact and energy cost savings benefits to make the case for certification,” said Richard Tremblay, General Manager of the NRC’s Construction portfolio. “Now, the NRC and RBC have developed objective methods to support the case that green buildings enhance job satisfaction and enhance indicators related to productivity as well.”
This project is one of many ways the NRC is working towards a cleaner, greener future for Canadians through innovation. The NRC was uniquely placed for this collaboration not only because of its technical knowledge of high performance buildings, but also because it provided impartial analysis of more than 120 million records from RBC.
“We are delighted to have partnered with the NRC on this ground-breaking study,” said Robert Carlyle, RBC’s senior director of strategic workforce management. “We look forward to uncovering new insights with the NRC to assist in developing physical spaces that help keep employees engaged.”